Assessing Alternative Explanations of Dominican Decentralization

Two competing theoretical accounts of Dominican decentralization focus, respectively, on economic shocks and on the interests of individual political parties. Neither model explains the course of Dominican events well. The nation did experience major economic traumas in 1984 and 1990, but the state reacted by revising the nation’s basic macro-economic model, not by spinning off responsibilities and revenue to subnational governments. The national government retained most policy functions, linked closely to vital fl ows of patronage. Kathleen O’Neill posits that a political party may strengthen local governments if it anticipates both losing national power and enjoying stronger future local-level support. The Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) initiated many decentralizing reforms, but as part of a project to attain and hold presidential power, not to prepare for national defeat. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.